Cheapest LLC formation in Georgia

What does the state of Georgia charge to form and keep an LLC?

Georgia's fees are published by the Secretary of State, and every provider quotes its package price without them.

Only the Articles fee, $110, is unavoidable when you form the LLC. It is the same online or by mail, though mail is slower, at about 15 business days against approximately 7 business days online. A service that files for you pays it too.^{1, 5}

The yearly cost is the annual registration at $60 ($50 filing fee + $10 service charge). The first annual registration is due in the calendar year after formation, so an LLC formed in, say, the autumn files its first registration only a few months later, and one formed in January waits more than a year for the first fee. File late and the state adds a $25 penalty.^{1, 5}

Put together for the leanest case, an owner living in Georgia who acts as their own agent and files everything online pays the Articles fee once, nothing more to the state for the rest of that calendar year, and then the registration fee each spring between January and April. Every other line on a Georgia LLC's bill comes from a choice: a faster tier, a paid agent, or a service that files for you.

A name reservation, at $35 for 30 days, is optional and only useful when filing is delayed. An LLC already formed in another state pays $235 for a Certificate of Authority instead of the formation fee, which makes registering an outside LLC the larger fixed cost.¹

The state pages cited here don't publish whether Georgia taxes LLCs beyond these filing fees, so this page counts filing fees only; the Georgia Department of Revenue can say which taxes apply.

What raises the cost of a Georgia LLC?

The bill grows beyond the state's fees through a faster processing tier, a paid agent, add-ons and trials sold at checkout, and penalties for missed deadlines.

The price of speed

Expedite fees are added to the filing fee, and the top tier costs many times the filing fee itself. The tiers are two business days +$120, same day +$275 and one hour +$1,200. Unless a lease, loan or contract needs the LLC by a date, standard online processing costs nothing extra. A formation package that promises fast handling may only speed up the provider's side, so ask whether it pays the state's tier.⁷

The registered agent

A paid agent recurs on top of the annual registration, and Georgia gives three ways to handle it.

• Act as your own agent, if you are an individual resident of this state. It costs nothing, but your address becomes the LLC's registered office.
• Take an agent bundled free for the first year, then decide at renewal whether to keep it.
• Buy the agent separately at one of the standalone prices in the table below.

Switching later is cheap if you time it: when the new agent is named on the annual registration, there is no separate fee. Outside the registration window, an amended annual registration costs $30. The steps are in how to change a registered agent, and the Georgia registered agent guide covers who may serve.¹

Add-ons and trials at checkout

The usual offers are an EIN, an operating agreement, a business address and a compliance subscription. The compliance subscription deserves a second look in Georgia, because the annual registration is a filing the owner can make without help. Swyft's ComplianceGuard is a 14-day free trial then auto-charged, and ZenBusiness Starter includes Worry-Free Compliance free for 1 year (then $199/yr). Note when each free period ends.^{8, 9}

Missed deadlines

The $25 penalty for a late registration is the small one. Being without a registered agent or office for 60 days or more is a ground for administrative dissolution, a gap that can open if an agent resigns and no replacement is named. Reinstatement costs $260 and must be sought within 5 years of administrative dissolution. Staying compliant in Georgia has the full calendar.^{10, 11}

Which providers have the lowest published prices for a Georgia LLC?

The price table lists each provider's agent price, renewal and lowest formation package. Rows follow our score, highest first, with ties in editorial order; they are not ranked by price.

The second table puts each lowest package next to what the agent costs in the first year and from the second year, the part of the bill that keeps coming back.

Packages that include the agent at first

Bizee's Basic package bundles the agent's first year, which makes the state's $110 the main year-one cost; from the second year you add Bizee's renewal to the state's $60. doola's Starter lists the agent as free with Formation Service, but the plan itself is $297/yr and its terms say recurring fees auto-renew, so the yearly charge is the plan, not just the agent. On its corporation page, Northwest describes its formation price as a total that includes one year of registered agent service; its LLC page doesn't say the same, so ask. Northwest also enrols agent customers in its annual report service ("you'll automatically be enrolled in our renewal service"), at $100 + state fees, which a Georgia owner filing the registration alone can decline.^{19, 29, 30, 31, 32}

Packages that leave the agent out

Tailor Brands, ZenBusiness, LegalZoom, Swyft Filings and InCorp all start at a low or zero package price and sell the agent separately. With these, year one is the state fee plus the agent price, or just the state fee if you act as your own agent and skip the extras offered at checkout. ZenBusiness discounts the agent's first year for LLCs it forms and then renews at $199/yr. LegalZoom renews at the purchase rate each year, with the rate subject to change, while Swyft Filings bills by the quarter, which adds up to $596/year once a full year has passed. InCorp's agent is $129/year, though its terms say renewals are billed at then-current fee. Tailor Brands' next plan up costs $199/yr plus state fees, billed yearly.^{12, 14, 16, 25, 33}

Membership and term pricing

Rocket Lawyer's free first registration comes with a membership billed yearly: Standard $149/year, Plus $249/year, Pro $349/year. The agent needs Plus or Pro, so both bills apply. Harbor Compliance's agent has an introductory first-year price, and stopping the renewal takes notice at least 90 days before the end of the current term.^{34, 35}

Agent-only prices across the country are on cheapest registered agent services, and the agent services are compared for this state on Georgia registered agent services compared.